Okay, first of all, Zenyatta was robbed. Hey Mike Smith, could you have taken her any further back? The wondrous Z danced her way to the paddock and seemingly all the way to the starting gate. She seemed to acknowledge the crowd throughout, wanting only to squeeze one more hurrah out of thousands of racing fans, and make good on their winning tickets. Even if a lot of them would never be cashed. She seemed sure this’d be a walk in the park, another day at the office, sashaying her way to the winners circle while all the boys were still hangin’ by the water fountain. This would be her 2oth in a row….no problemo.
That was all before her longtime jock strangled her coming out of the gate. Before she could say “dumbass jock”, she was 20 lengths behind, getting clumps of real dirt pounding into her gorgeous peepers. But the queen kept her cool, if somewhat surprised by her rider’s strange reluctance, and wondering when he’d pull out a pair of goggles for her? She cut the lead from 20 to about 12 lengths at the mile pole but by then there was only a quarter mile to go. And those young colts ahead of her didn’t even seem tired.
It was about then that Mike finally took her outside where she could turn it on and, in the space of about 11 seconds, the time it took her to charge through that next to last (who says penultimate anymore?) furlong, she had cut that monstrous lead to about two lengths and she could see that finish line (I’m convinced). She had that chassis moving now with just one horse to beat, but geez, that young stud, a colt named Blame, was rolling too.
So down the stretch they came, as they say. That lead became 2 lengths, then 1 ½, then 1 and then just about nothin’ at all. And there was the pole.
The crowd was cheering but she could feel her rider’s anguish. She seemed to hang her head and she definitely stopped dancing. She probably wondered what the crowd was thinking. Why did thay all still seem so excited?
It probably didn’t occur to her that she had just gobbled up a 12-length lead in a quarter mile, that she had restored hope to all those bettors and fans whose heads had drooped after seeing her hopes diminishing with each succeeding pole for that first mile or so. “She’ll never make it”, I had said to my lovely wife, who had almost never watched TV with me before. She said sumthin’ like “but she always comes from behind, doesn’t she” and I said sumthin’ like “but she’s too far back, she’ll never catch them now”. I remember thinking about an old stretch-runner named Carry Back, who would sweep the field in the last furlong or so, but that was a long time ago, and Carry Back was a colt.
And then I was yelling, “Go! Go! Go!” as Zenyatta’s profile slowly, inexorably, advanced on that lead colt’s flanks all the way to that damned final pole. It was the best horse race I had seen in many a year, and I knew I had seen one of the best horses I would ever see.
They say she had her chance and couldn’t get her head in front. They say she won’t be the Horse of the Year. I say she’s been the Horse of the Decade at least and no other horse had evoked as much admiration out of a crowd since, well, Secretariat in that insane Belmont of the early Seventies. Yeah, there were other big ones too, there was Ruffian of course, and Affirmed and Stevie Cauthen wearin’ out Alydar for the Triple Crown. But that’s about it. I wasn’t around for Seabiscuit. And none of them could dance. (Actually, Secretariat and Seabiscuit both played to the crowd).
So go ahead, racing intelligentsia, make Blame the Horse of the Year. After all, he did keep his head in front at that finish line. It won’t change anybody’s mind, not anyone who had been there at Churchill or anybody who had just watched on TV. Zenyatta’s the Horse of the Year and one of the horses of the century.
There. All that had to be said. I feel better now.
That seemed more important to me than what the Jets or Giants did, or what has developed in the Mets front offices. Of course, all’s quiet on the football front, at least locally, as the Giants have been rolling and the Jets more or less just surviving in good form. The Mets new guy, Sandy Alderson, will probably wind up being a good hire and he’s supposed to be evaluating fiery coaches. (I have almost no hope in that regard, I liked Jerry Manuel). Oh, and I don’t care what the Yankees do. Whatever they do, it won’t be enough, not with trying to carry all that dead weight. (Okay, not dead, just twitching ever more slowly).
The big intrigue in football is in Dallas and Minnesota, what with Wade Phillips finally hitting the dusty trail and Brad Childress hanging on like that cat hangin’ on to that chinning bar in all those cheap reproductions. Both of their jobs were in trouble going into Week 9. Favre and Adrian Peterson, Percy Harvin and even Bernard Berrian for Minnesota rallied the Vikings to victory in a thrilling comeback win. The Boyz flopped historically, and nary a Dallas cornerback or linebacker could be found. They lost 41-7. Wade Phillips needed a secondary to show up in what would turn out to be his final game. He didn’t get it.
But the Vikings still breathe, even if they’re way behind and that finish line seems so close. Down the stretch they come.
They could take a lesson from a magnificent dancing mare who faced the same odds but fought valiantly to that finish line, despite the bad ride.
Showing posts with label Childress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Childress. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
A Question of Balance
Was there ever a better World Series? Well, yes. The Rangers were very quiet. All those bats did nothing. That wasn’t Yankee pitching out there on the hill. Those were the best pitchers in the National League. And it showed. Whiff, whiff, whiff went the Rangers. Tim Lincecum beat the great Cliff Lee twice. Matt Cain won Game 2 and would have won more had the Series been extended. The very young Madison Bumgarner was lights out too. Only Jonathan Sanchez was touched up for some runs.
While the Rangers were mostly striking out, the Giants did just enough to win at the plate and sometimes did more than that. They were really very good at the plate, certainly better than they had been all season, starting with the World Series MVP, Edgar Renteria. He’d been hurt most of the season. The real stalwarts in the batting order all season had been Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe. Andres Torres had also shown himself to be a real pain in the neck to opposing pitchers and catchers both. Otherwise, that team just didn’t hit at all.
There was no Cody Ross, no Pat Burrell.. ….just guys like the Panda, Pablo Sandoval, who had a horrible year. Freddy Sanchez didn’t do much either. In the Series, they all decided to be world beaters. Go figure, not that they had to do much in this Series. The Rangers, who had looked so awesome versus Tampa Bay and New York, couldn’t touch the Giants pitching most games.
But at least the Series managers let their teams play. They didn’t impose their wills on the game beyond what was needed. The Giants won because they pitched better, they batted better and they fielded better. Nobody pitched on 3 days rest. There were no outrageous decisions. The managers seemed happy to fade into the woodwork, or the dugout as the case may be. While Bruce Bochy got credit for making all the right moves, his choices weren’t made to call attention to himself.
Contrast that to some or almost all of these NFL coaches. Bonehead of the week went hands down to Mike Shanahan, who took out his fine starting quarterback, Donovan McNabb, in the final two minutes, only to insert one Rex Grossman, formerly of Bears fame and mostly notable for bad throws. Rex was hit and immediately fumbled, thus ensuring defeat in a game that had only seconds ago been winnable.
Shortly thereafter, Brad Childress, already somewhat infamous for being a boob, at least in this column, waived the incomparable Randy Moss, who committed the unpardonable sin of all time by questioning one of Brad’s brain farts that didn’t work in their loss to Moss’s former team, the New England Patriots.
Now don’t get me wrong. Randy Moss is an idiot. But he did make the Vikings a better team, no matter that the Vikings hadn’t been able to parlay his receiving skills into wins. But the Vikings still have a chance to turn their season around. It’s not likely that cutting Randy will prove to be any help in that regard. If nothing else, Moss’s presence completely opened the field for the dangerous Percy Harvin.
Cutting himself would have been a much better idea. Everybody knows it’s Favre’s team anyway. Childress has no football instincts whatsoever. Until and unless Sidney Rice returns to the Vikings lineup, the Vikings will have no deep threat on the field, nobody to keep the opposition off Harvin. And I don’t think we can count Bernard Berrian, or Greg Lewis or Camarillo. Oh yeah, there’s Hank Baskett too.
Childress cut Moss because he could. It’s as simple as that. (As this is written, Moss’s name still isn’t on the list so maybe it’s not so simple after all). Even given Moss’s rather huge indiscretions in the locker room, a warning or other disciplinary action would have been more appropriate at this time, especially if Childress were really interested in what’s best for the Vikings. Childress’s insecurities notwithstanding (and he certainly has ample reason for those), the timing of Moss’s release was poor.
Mike Shanahan is a different kind of case. He removed McNabb from the game totally for the sake of his own ego. He couldn’t stand the thought of the Skins winning another game and having McNabb get the credit for it. Again. But if Grossman could have achieved the same result, then the credit would have reverted to Shanahan. The only other possibility is that the Skins winning too many games in Shanahan’s first contract year is not part of his 5-year plan.
Either way, Shanahan’s taking McNabb out of the game was despicable. That his bonehead move was so spectacularly unsuccessful just proves that there is a God….in case you were wondering.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the Jets coaching staff once again proved its free and easy coaching style sometimes doesn’t work. The Jets punter, totally of his own volition, faked a punt from the shadows of his own goal posts. Of course he didn’t make the first down. But he surely did surprise both head coach Rex Ryan and the special teams coach, Mike Westhoff. Did he really have a green light? The punter, Steve Weatherford, seemed to think so.
All I know is that these things don’t happen to Bill Belichick. And these Jets seem to be playing their season as if they’re still doing a reality show.
In Dallas, Wade Phillips, in response to a question as to whether he had lost control of his team, responded that he certainly hoped not. What the hell kind of an answer is that? He could have ripped his secondary new butt-holes. He could have picked on guys like Miles Austin and other receivers who either tipped catchable balls or simply weren’t looking.
Phillips is the other extreme of the NFL coaching continuum, a total wuss. With all those candidates out there, can’t these teams find a balanced guy?
You can’t make this stuff up.
While the Rangers were mostly striking out, the Giants did just enough to win at the plate and sometimes did more than that. They were really very good at the plate, certainly better than they had been all season, starting with the World Series MVP, Edgar Renteria. He’d been hurt most of the season. The real stalwarts in the batting order all season had been Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe. Andres Torres had also shown himself to be a real pain in the neck to opposing pitchers and catchers both. Otherwise, that team just didn’t hit at all.
There was no Cody Ross, no Pat Burrell.. ….just guys like the Panda, Pablo Sandoval, who had a horrible year. Freddy Sanchez didn’t do much either. In the Series, they all decided to be world beaters. Go figure, not that they had to do much in this Series. The Rangers, who had looked so awesome versus Tampa Bay and New York, couldn’t touch the Giants pitching most games.
But at least the Series managers let their teams play. They didn’t impose their wills on the game beyond what was needed. The Giants won because they pitched better, they batted better and they fielded better. Nobody pitched on 3 days rest. There were no outrageous decisions. The managers seemed happy to fade into the woodwork, or the dugout as the case may be. While Bruce Bochy got credit for making all the right moves, his choices weren’t made to call attention to himself.
Contrast that to some or almost all of these NFL coaches. Bonehead of the week went hands down to Mike Shanahan, who took out his fine starting quarterback, Donovan McNabb, in the final two minutes, only to insert one Rex Grossman, formerly of Bears fame and mostly notable for bad throws. Rex was hit and immediately fumbled, thus ensuring defeat in a game that had only seconds ago been winnable.
Shortly thereafter, Brad Childress, already somewhat infamous for being a boob, at least in this column, waived the incomparable Randy Moss, who committed the unpardonable sin of all time by questioning one of Brad’s brain farts that didn’t work in their loss to Moss’s former team, the New England Patriots.
Now don’t get me wrong. Randy Moss is an idiot. But he did make the Vikings a better team, no matter that the Vikings hadn’t been able to parlay his receiving skills into wins. But the Vikings still have a chance to turn their season around. It’s not likely that cutting Randy will prove to be any help in that regard. If nothing else, Moss’s presence completely opened the field for the dangerous Percy Harvin.
Cutting himself would have been a much better idea. Everybody knows it’s Favre’s team anyway. Childress has no football instincts whatsoever. Until and unless Sidney Rice returns to the Vikings lineup, the Vikings will have no deep threat on the field, nobody to keep the opposition off Harvin. And I don’t think we can count Bernard Berrian, or Greg Lewis or Camarillo. Oh yeah, there’s Hank Baskett too.
Childress cut Moss because he could. It’s as simple as that. (As this is written, Moss’s name still isn’t on the list so maybe it’s not so simple after all). Even given Moss’s rather huge indiscretions in the locker room, a warning or other disciplinary action would have been more appropriate at this time, especially if Childress were really interested in what’s best for the Vikings. Childress’s insecurities notwithstanding (and he certainly has ample reason for those), the timing of Moss’s release was poor.
Mike Shanahan is a different kind of case. He removed McNabb from the game totally for the sake of his own ego. He couldn’t stand the thought of the Skins winning another game and having McNabb get the credit for it. Again. But if Grossman could have achieved the same result, then the credit would have reverted to Shanahan. The only other possibility is that the Skins winning too many games in Shanahan’s first contract year is not part of his 5-year plan.
Either way, Shanahan’s taking McNabb out of the game was despicable. That his bonehead move was so spectacularly unsuccessful just proves that there is a God….in case you were wondering.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the Jets coaching staff once again proved its free and easy coaching style sometimes doesn’t work. The Jets punter, totally of his own volition, faked a punt from the shadows of his own goal posts. Of course he didn’t make the first down. But he surely did surprise both head coach Rex Ryan and the special teams coach, Mike Westhoff. Did he really have a green light? The punter, Steve Weatherford, seemed to think so.
All I know is that these things don’t happen to Bill Belichick. And these Jets seem to be playing their season as if they’re still doing a reality show.
In Dallas, Wade Phillips, in response to a question as to whether he had lost control of his team, responded that he certainly hoped not. What the hell kind of an answer is that? He could have ripped his secondary new butt-holes. He could have picked on guys like Miles Austin and other receivers who either tipped catchable balls or simply weren’t looking.
Phillips is the other extreme of the NFL coaching continuum, a total wuss. With all those candidates out there, can’t these teams find a balanced guy?
You can’t make this stuff up.
Monday, January 5, 2009
On Eagles, Giants and Johnsons
It’s really easy to hate the Eagles. No running game to speak of….there’s Brian Westbrook of course, but somehow he’s just not that inspirational. Yesterday, he scored on a screen, typical of the kind of garbage offense on which Westbrook and McNabb seem to thrive.
Their passing game looked a little better yesterday than I am used to seeing from them. DeSean Jackson was fun to watch and Kevin Curtis looked good too. McNabb was his old self, eluding a fierce rush more often than not and firing darts at the last moment to a bunch of receivers that had maybe a foot of separation from their defender.
Then there’s their vaunted defense, featuring cheap-shot artist Brian Dawkins. I’m sorry, I know he’s a great player but his hit on Adrian Peterson while he was down (some will say he was on his way down but Peterson was down) really ticked me off. Like the NBA, I guess, the longer you’ve been doing it, the better the calls.
Then there’s Andy Reid, the epitome of boring, that is, until you compare him to Brad Childress, the Vikings head coach. What a poor excuse for a head coach is Childress. I would have won that game as the head coach. I’ll just pick two situations in which Childress showed his lack of intellect, his utter lack of a feel for the game.
The first was his decision to refuse a holding penalty in the first quarter, thus leaving David Akers well within his field goal range and give the Eagles the lead. The lead is an important thing to have in any endeavor, of course, but in football, it’s especially nice. It changes the whole game a bit in favor of the guys with the lead.
Then in the second quarter, Adrian Peterson had just run on first down for six yards through that supposedly tough Eagles run defense. He came back to the huddle exuding confidence and ready for more pounding. You could see he was thinking it would be easy. But he would never get the opportunity.
Childress called a pass on 2nd and 4! With the best running back in football rearing to go, chomping at the bit for another chance. With an inexperienced QB in his first playoff game. The pass was incomplete, of course. Childress still had a chance on 3rd and 4 but he eschewed the run again for still another ill-advised pass.
But this one wasn’t just ill-advised, it was reckless, a pass to the flat. And, of course, Asante Samuel picked it off and ran for 40 yards or so and it was all over but the shoutin’. It was the key play of the game, changing the momentum and putting the offensively-challenged Birds into the end zone for the first time.
Peterson wouldn’t get that many more opportunities. Maybe it was because of Dawkins’s cheap shot on Peterson earlier. We certainly saw a lot of Chester Taylor yesterday, no slouch himself, but incapable of wreaking the havoc of a Peterson.
Oh well, it’s over. One more ridiculous coach and his team bites the dust, at home in front of all of its fans. The Vikings had the best offense, they had the best defense and they had the better team all around but they would go home with that empty feeling, wondering perhaps what could have happened if they had a real head coach on the sidelines.
I should probably be happy. The weaker team advanced, and as there’s still a chance for our G-Men, they’ll simply have to put a pounding on the Eagles rather than having to face the Vikings somewhere down the road. Of course, the Eagles don’t give games away, which might be a bit of a problem.
Why are all the tough guys in Philadelphia? There’s Dawkins, of course, but there was also Jimmy Rollins. And that pain in the butt at 2nd base. And that guy in the outfield who only hit against the Mets. And that other guy who only hit in the clutch.
Giants fans can only hope the G-Men will change up their defensive gameplan this time around. Otherwise, they’ll lose. The G-Men got just one sack vs. Philly in Week 14 and they lost 20-14. I’m hoping they have some stuff up their sleeves as they did against the Pats in the Super Bowl, after having lost to them in Week 17 of last year.
There were also some extenuating circumstances in that Week 14 game, the first after Plax’s suspension and after Antonio Pierce’s grilling by the police. But, more than that, Jacobs hurt his knee in the third quarter and didn’t return. And Hixon dropped a sure touchdown that hit him in the hands.
I wish I could feel better about this upcoming Eagles contest. You don’t feel the same magic with this Giants team as you did with last year’s team. There is no Osi and no Strahan. There is no Plaxico. Hixon is not Plax. And Sinorice Moss doesn’t adequately spell Hixon as a return man.
That doesn’t mean they can’t beat the Eagles but one can’t expect too much. They’ll be at home, but that doesn’t make me feel that much better. They’re just not as versatile as last year’s version that could run the ball, pass the ball and play great on specials too. This version seems more like Brandon Jacobs and a cloud of dust.
Meanwhile, the Jets coaching search allegedly continues and the list of potential candidates grows longer and longer. But it’s a sham, I think. The winner will be whoever Jets owner Woody Johnson likes, and his mouthpiece Mr. Tannenbaum. I can’t root for a team that, literally, thinks with its Johnson.
The whole process kinda reminds me of that old joke, the punchline of which is “the one with the big”, um, oh never mind. Oh well, Jets fans, “if it works out, it works out, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t”.
Their passing game looked a little better yesterday than I am used to seeing from them. DeSean Jackson was fun to watch and Kevin Curtis looked good too. McNabb was his old self, eluding a fierce rush more often than not and firing darts at the last moment to a bunch of receivers that had maybe a foot of separation from their defender.
Then there’s their vaunted defense, featuring cheap-shot artist Brian Dawkins. I’m sorry, I know he’s a great player but his hit on Adrian Peterson while he was down (some will say he was on his way down but Peterson was down) really ticked me off. Like the NBA, I guess, the longer you’ve been doing it, the better the calls.
Then there’s Andy Reid, the epitome of boring, that is, until you compare him to Brad Childress, the Vikings head coach. What a poor excuse for a head coach is Childress. I would have won that game as the head coach. I’ll just pick two situations in which Childress showed his lack of intellect, his utter lack of a feel for the game.
The first was his decision to refuse a holding penalty in the first quarter, thus leaving David Akers well within his field goal range and give the Eagles the lead. The lead is an important thing to have in any endeavor, of course, but in football, it’s especially nice. It changes the whole game a bit in favor of the guys with the lead.
Then in the second quarter, Adrian Peterson had just run on first down for six yards through that supposedly tough Eagles run defense. He came back to the huddle exuding confidence and ready for more pounding. You could see he was thinking it would be easy. But he would never get the opportunity.
Childress called a pass on 2nd and 4! With the best running back in football rearing to go, chomping at the bit for another chance. With an inexperienced QB in his first playoff game. The pass was incomplete, of course. Childress still had a chance on 3rd and 4 but he eschewed the run again for still another ill-advised pass.
But this one wasn’t just ill-advised, it was reckless, a pass to the flat. And, of course, Asante Samuel picked it off and ran for 40 yards or so and it was all over but the shoutin’. It was the key play of the game, changing the momentum and putting the offensively-challenged Birds into the end zone for the first time.
Peterson wouldn’t get that many more opportunities. Maybe it was because of Dawkins’s cheap shot on Peterson earlier. We certainly saw a lot of Chester Taylor yesterday, no slouch himself, but incapable of wreaking the havoc of a Peterson.
Oh well, it’s over. One more ridiculous coach and his team bites the dust, at home in front of all of its fans. The Vikings had the best offense, they had the best defense and they had the better team all around but they would go home with that empty feeling, wondering perhaps what could have happened if they had a real head coach on the sidelines.
I should probably be happy. The weaker team advanced, and as there’s still a chance for our G-Men, they’ll simply have to put a pounding on the Eagles rather than having to face the Vikings somewhere down the road. Of course, the Eagles don’t give games away, which might be a bit of a problem.
Why are all the tough guys in Philadelphia? There’s Dawkins, of course, but there was also Jimmy Rollins. And that pain in the butt at 2nd base. And that guy in the outfield who only hit against the Mets. And that other guy who only hit in the clutch.
Giants fans can only hope the G-Men will change up their defensive gameplan this time around. Otherwise, they’ll lose. The G-Men got just one sack vs. Philly in Week 14 and they lost 20-14. I’m hoping they have some stuff up their sleeves as they did against the Pats in the Super Bowl, after having lost to them in Week 17 of last year.
There were also some extenuating circumstances in that Week 14 game, the first after Plax’s suspension and after Antonio Pierce’s grilling by the police. But, more than that, Jacobs hurt his knee in the third quarter and didn’t return. And Hixon dropped a sure touchdown that hit him in the hands.
I wish I could feel better about this upcoming Eagles contest. You don’t feel the same magic with this Giants team as you did with last year’s team. There is no Osi and no Strahan. There is no Plaxico. Hixon is not Plax. And Sinorice Moss doesn’t adequately spell Hixon as a return man.
That doesn’t mean they can’t beat the Eagles but one can’t expect too much. They’ll be at home, but that doesn’t make me feel that much better. They’re just not as versatile as last year’s version that could run the ball, pass the ball and play great on specials too. This version seems more like Brandon Jacobs and a cloud of dust.
Meanwhile, the Jets coaching search allegedly continues and the list of potential candidates grows longer and longer. But it’s a sham, I think. The winner will be whoever Jets owner Woody Johnson likes, and his mouthpiece Mr. Tannenbaum. I can’t root for a team that, literally, thinks with its Johnson.
The whole process kinda reminds me of that old joke, the punchline of which is “the one with the big”, um, oh never mind. Oh well, Jets fans, “if it works out, it works out, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t”.
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